Joseph Cinque

Joseph Cinque (1814-1879), born Sengbe Pieh, was a Mende slave who led a revolt on the Spanish slave ship Amistad in 1839. After the ship landed on Long Island, Cinque and the other slaves were tried for the murders of the officers, but they were found to have rightfully defended themselves from the illegal Atlantic slave trade and were released to West Africa.

Biography
Sengbe Pieh was born in Sierra Leone in 1814 to the Mende people, and he was a rice farmer before being captured by African slave traders in 1839 and sold to Pedro Blanco. He was imprisoned on the Portuguese slave ship Tecora, and he was taken to Cuba, where he was sold with 110 others to Spanish merchants Don Jose Ruiz and Don Pedro Montes. On 30 June, Senge Pieh - christened as "Joseph Cinque" by his slavers - led a revolt against Captain Don Ramon Ferrer, killing the captain and the cook, and taking Ruiz and Montes hostages as navigators. Instead of taking the ship towards Africa, the Spaniards instead steered west, and the ship was intercepted by the US Navy off Long Island. The slaves were taken to New Haven, Connecticut to await trial for the murders of the crewmen.

Amistad case
The two Spaniards claimed that the Africans were, in fact, Cuban slaves at the time of their purchase, and were therefore legal property. Cinque served as the group's informal representative, and, with the help of lawyer Roger Sherman Baldwin and interpreter James Covey, he was able to tell the group's story to the court. Judge Jeremy Coglin concluded that the slaves were illegally imported from Africa, and ruled that they should be released home post-haste. However, the case was appealed to the US Supreme Court, and it lasted until 1841, when John Quincy Adams convinced the court to uphold the verdict. Through fundraising, abolitionists paid for the return voyage of Cinque and the other Africans to West Africa, and Cinque lived until 1879.